The two ways of acquiring knowledge My beloved brothers and sisters, I hope that this small essay a description

of the -Two ways of acquiring knowledge- will be interesting and enlightening for your research for SALVATION knowledge Unchanged. This is an acknowledgment of the Greek Orthodox Church that I hope will give you the know how needed that can determine the Life Saving knowledge, from knowledge that it is not. The man centered way (Philosophy). In the man-centered way in acquiring knowledge, man himself has the first word because he acquires knowledge through his own mind, his own logic. Mans logic and thinking process have the first word in formulating ideas in order to express ideas opinions or visions, or in order to further benefit man kind in medicine and science. However this type way of acquiring knowledge philosophy, can be very damaging when used for spiritual matters because it becomes very illusive when used in trying to give meaning especially to verses of the Holy Bible that are Divine begotten. This is because philosophy is a thinking process that is usually used alongwith imagination (fantasia). It is the fantasia in philosophy which in essence is damaging, because it has the ability to confirm at will self begotten knowledge as True. The existence of hundreds of denominations of Christians Churches in the world today, proves the presence of fantasia in a Christian Church that was ordained by Lord Jesus His Self to exist as a SINGLE (ONE) Church alone. (Ephesians 4, 5) One Church, One Faith and One Baptism. The reading of the Word of God and the practice of Christian life can cure the mind of man up to an extent (better behavior or goodness), however it cannot provide the necessary purity needed for the ill begotten heart that it is in need of therapy. (Matthew 15:19) For from his heart come the evil ideas which lead him to kill, commit adultery, and do other immoral things; to rob, lie, and slander and others. The Holy Fathers teach that the heart-, which is the center of the soul, reflects the condition of the eternal self, the one that leaves the body at the moment of death. That is why, the purification of the heart is considered to be the up most significant precondition for accepting the Holy Spirit within (Salvation) as revealed in (2 Corinthians: 4:6). God makes His Light shine in our hearts, to bring us the knowledge of Gods glory shining in the face of Christ. In other words if our heart is not purified (using the Holy Sacraments of the Church Divinely begotten) God will not allow (shine) the Holy Spirit (His Light) in our hearts in order to bring us the knowledge of His Glory not now, not for all times to come. Goodness is good however IT DOES NOT SAVE! Remember all the prophets of the Old Testament were good but -in the absence of the Church- that could provide remission from sin they were not saved! Lord Jesus who is God and also the Church Himself (Colossians 1:18) He is the head of his body the Church; He is the source of the bodys life, went down to Hades and brought them out!

For scientists: To study the laws of the universe (science) is to know the Winston and Creativity of God but NOT God Himself. If a scientist was given a ball for instance, they are limited to studying and learning about the type material and maybe the laws governing the way the ball bounceshowever it would be impossible for them to learn (know) anything about the person who designed or constructed it. Correct? There for all issues concerning the knowledge of God are not philosophical psychological or scientific, they are Spiritual. The Christ centered way (Revelation). The precondition of acquiring knowledge the Christ centered way, is that religious Life is practiced according to the Will of the Triad God. The TRUTH is revealed ONLY to those who have properly prepared to receive it, and it is RECEIVED- PERSON to person, meaning that the TRIAD God delivers the knowledge personally to man just like he delivered to Moses the Ten Commandments. This is where the Church comes in. You see my friends, it is impossible for man to know God with his own mind (philosophy) or with His own logic. The golden rule that has applied from the beginning of Creation of man has been that: GOD HAS TO WANT TO REVEAL HISELF TO MAN! This was the purpose of the coming of Lord Jesus and the creation of His Church in order to set up the right circumstances for man to be able to personally know God. (John 17:13) And Eternal life means knowing you, the only true God, and knowing Jesus whom you sent After Pentecost (and the dissenting of the Holy Spirit), the Apostles created the Church around the world using specific rules (given from above) that are known today as the 85 Holy Apostolic Cannons. http://aggreen.net/canons/canons.html. When Paul was writing his epistles to Christians around the world he was writing to people ALREADY BELONGING TO A SPECIFIC CHURCH THAT HAD A SPECIFIC WAY OF DOING THINGS! Proof of the existence of the Church is not only Pauls greeting toward the Christians in the beginning of his second letter to the Corinthians, but is the personal lives (history) of some of the Apostles and friends of Lord Jesus. Notice here please that in his greeting in his second letter to the Corinthians how Paul also implicates Timothy. 2nd Corinthians 1:1 From Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by Gods will, and from our brother Timothy- To the Church of God in Corinth, and to all Gods people throughout Achaia: May God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. I would like to ad here, that it would be very un wise for anyone to contemplate the possibility that all the rest of Pauls letters were addressed to Christians that did not belong to that same Church! In studying the lives of some of the Apostles and friends Lord Jesus, will further convince you my honest brothers and scholars of the Holy Bible of the nesseccicty of the presence in our lives of that same ancient Church. Mark the Evangelist (who had Cypriot parents), who came to Cyprus with Paul (Acts 13:4, 5) became the first Bishop of Alexandria. James the brother of Jesus (the son of Joseph) was at the time the first Bishop of Jerusalem. Lazarus the resurrected friend of Lord Jesus was a Cyprus Bishop in Larnaka for 32 years! His burial place is here in Cyprus. In concluding, the only proud claim that you will get from the Christians belonging to the nations that belong to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchy

today is that they have kept everything delivered by the Apostles for the Salvation of man UNCHANGED. You see the sole purpose of the Church was to serve as a Hospital or a therapeutic institution to clean man from sin in order for him to personally be able to know God! These circumstances for knowing God are defined very clearly in (Peter 1, 16). Be Holy because I am Holy What escapes the knowledge of most people today, is the fact that the God-man Lord Jesus incarnated into a man in order for mankind, to knowtheir True POTENTIAL (New Creation) of a new way of being! In other words God became man so man could become god! Lord Jesus is God by NATURE, and man is given now the opportunity (through the Holy Sacraments (therapy) of the Church) to become a god but by the GRACE of GOD, to be (Holy like He is). The Saints SEE the Glory of God and participate in IT according to the proportion of the each persons purity. This is what is known as Sainthood. In continuing I would like to inform you that Sainthood (holiness) is NOT a moral or an ethical term in the Orthodox Church but a condition that is viewed as an ontological transformation that is verifiable! Five years after the death of the monks in the Orthodox Monasteries, they remove their remains in order to verify a gold colour, or verify the presence of beautiful aroma emanating from them. This has always been the hands on proof for the first Christian Church that during their life time they managed to become worthy to become TEMPLES of the Holy Spirit. The fact that the Church today is in possession of Holy Remains of even the Apostles, proves the age of this Church Tradition. Here in Cyprus we have the Kara (scull) of Apostle Philip and Remains of others you know and love thought the Holy Bible. The FACT is that these Saints are YOUR SAINTS TOO! Remember the Apostles where the men that took out demons, and resurrected the dead. This state of Sainthood is also known by the Holy Fathers as the supernatural condition or as the overcoming of the first way God created man (Adam) CONCLUSION Knowledge begotten the Man centered way (Philosophy): Persons studying the Holy Bible in the absence of the Church as delivered by the Apostles are unfortunately condemned to know Lord Jesus only philosophically and NOT Personally. To know Lord Jesus philosophically is to have a love relationship with an idea philosophy and not Lord Himself who appears to his Saints in His Divine Light as a PERSON! Saint Symeon in his writings goes to great lengths to clarify that the Divine Light is Personal. It is not simply a sensible radiancean inanimate luminosity such as one might receive from a lamp, or from the sun. Rather the Divine Light is the very person of the Divinity Himself: it is not simply a product of God, it is God. Your light, O my God, is You, he writes, and to this point of emphasis he often returns. According to the personal experience of the Saints the heavenly Kingdom is not a place rather a way of being and there are monks in Orthodox monasteries in the world today that are known to enjoy the Heavenly kingdom from this world they are known by the rest of us who visit them by their miraculous deeds and actions!

Orthodoxy teaches that it has an unbroken Holy Tradition of spiritual knowledge, a way of life that leads to a Mystical Union With God. This mystical union is also known as Sainthood or being a god by the Grace of God. The transformed Holy Remains of the Apostles and the Saints of the Church testify to the fact that while alive they were Temples of the Holy Spirit. http://www.greekorthodoxchurch.org/ You can download free pages from books here that might interest you. Some titles are: Life after death, On union with God, Orthodox Psychotherapy, How to cure Religion, The history of the Church, est. Sharing this knowledge has -no demands or expectations-, and sharing is not done for reasons of competing in theology. It is only done as an act of brotherly love and respect and the duty to Christ to share the Truth. Salvation means Salvation from death, and death means our Eternal separation from God. Respectfully your friend and servant Constantinos